Maria B. Bird

Supervisor: Mr. Brent A. Thomas; (520) 718-7471; brent.a.thomas4.civ@army.mil

• Supervised a team of up to 8 acquisition specialists who are collectively responsible for performing oversight on over 40 complex task orders valued at over $1.4B with performance at over 1100 locations worldwide.
• Contributed to the planning of contractual strategies for the HR Solutions program, ensuring agencies get the best value contract services to support Soldier and Family Readiness.
• Advised Source Selection Evaluation Boards (SSEBs), ensuring proposals were consistently evaluated in accordance with SSEB criteria.
• Contributed to the successful defense two difficult GAO protests in 2025.

Supervisor: Mr. David L. Shuck; (502) 938-7050; dlshuck@aol.com

• Assigned as HRS action officer and Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) on 12 task orders with a combine value of $431M.
• Prepared acquisition package documents for new requirements and task order modification.
• Performed contract surveillance,
• Selected to combine two marginally performing contracts into a single contract in support of Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). Established stringent performance standards and coordinated a site visit for interested contractors to ensure they had a clear understanding of requirements.

Supervisor: Ms. Stephanie Bowman; (270) 307-4331

• Developed acquisition package documents as a member of the pre-award team within the HR Solutions division.
• Coordinated and administered complex SSEBs, using Best Value Tradeoff and Lowest Price Technically Acceptable selection procedures.
• Conducted price analysis, to include price realism to ensure proposals were reasonably priced and not unrealistically low.
• Facilitated oral presentations during an SSEB to assess proposed innovative ideas for a website designed to attract potential recruits to the Army, which led to enhanced user engagement for the Army.
• Drafted award documents in the contract writing system.
• Hand-picked to develop all acquisition documents for a high-visibility $202M enterprise-level resiliency training requirement on short notice. Coordinated expedited peer reviews with senior leadership to include MICC HQ, resulting in a timely award to a contractor providing the best value to the Government.

• Prepared acquisition documents for contractor services; construction; information technology equipment and services; Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); and Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) items.
• Oversaw strategic development and execution of corporate credit card and travel management program, ensuring alignment with corporate policies and cost efficiency.
• Achieved a $375,000 reduction in annual PPE costs through effective project management. Standardized the uniform program across multiple sites, resulting in an annual savings of $61,000.